Every year at WWDC, Apple unveils its latest and greatest software for all of its products. By far and away the biggest draw each year is iOS, its iPhone operating system. The iPhone is Apple’s most popular product by orders of magnitude, and the changes will impact hundreds of millions of customers.
Last year at WWDC, iOS 17 was unveiled. A more muted affair, it brought some cool personalization tools such as Contact Posters, as well as the new Journal app and a personal favorite of mine, StandBy mode. Strangely, iOS 17 has actually made more headlines in 2024 than it did in 2023 thanks to the advent of alternative app marketplaces, sideloading, and retro game emulators since the turn of the year. WWDC 2024 is just days away, and now all eyes are on iOS 18 and the major upgrades coming to iPhone later this year. With that in mind, here are the five biggest changes we think you should be looking forward to on the iPhone, including one that Apple has already announced.
Siri
Undoubtedly, the biggest change coming to iOS 18 is the expected advent of Apple AI, powerful new tools to supplement day-to-day tasks on iPhone. While AI is expected to feature in apps like Messages, Apple Music, Notes, Calendar, and more, the main attraction has to be Siri. According to the latest reports, Apple is planning a major overhaul to Siri powered by AI, and quite possibly OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The changes could include more natural conversations, more complex queries and responses, notification overviews, and more. Siri is crying out for a change, and iOS 18 looks set to be just the ticket. The only quirk? The best changes might not be ready until 2025.
Home Screen
A particular weak spot on iOS, Apple’s iPhone Home Screen has often lagged behind more customizable and flexible alternatives from Android vendors. While Apple has made some changes with the introduction of widgets, the same fixed grid configuration is definitely looking tired. This year, Apple will reportedly introduce tweaks that let users pick the color of app icons and move them wherever they want, ending the standardized grid that has been the hallmark of the iPhone since it first launched.
RCS
The exclusivity of iMessage has been a sore spot pointed by various antitrust probes into Apple. While the introduction of RCS (Rich Communication Services), won’t bring iMessage to Android, it will give users much greater interoperability when it comes to messaging their Android counterparts. RCS should deliver features iMessage users will be familiar with including read receipts, typing indicators, and better quality image sharing.
Safari web eraser
iPhone browser Safari is tipped for a significant upgrade with iOS 18, and one of the biggest rumored changes is an AI-powered Web Eraser feature that can purportedly remove whole sections of a website you don’t want to see while you browse, such as adverts, popups, and videos. It’s a move that could transform web browsing on iPhone, and a move some industry players have warned could overturn the publishing industry.
Accessibility
Apple has already confirmed a series of brand-new accessibility features coming to iPhone later this year. Unveiled in May, Apple is adding a new Eye Tracking feature to iPhone that will let users with physical disabilities control their iPhone or iPad with their eyes. It will use the iPhone’s front-facing camera and AI (on-device machine learning) with no additional hardware or accessories required. New Music Haptics will let deaf or hard of hearing users engage with music through vibrations powered by the Taptic Engine on iPhone. A new Vocal Shortcuts feature will let iPhone users trigger Shortcuts with just their voice, and a new Vehicle Motion Cues will use animated dots to reduce the feeling of motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles.
More where that came from
There’s plenty more rumored for iOS 18, and we’re just days away from its unveiling and our first look at everything that Apple has to offer. Rumors that iOS 18 could be the biggest iPhone software upgrade ever are certainly starting to look more and more likely at this late stage. For most users, the changes will come to bear in September, with June, July, and August reserved for brave beta testers.
iOS 18, best enjoyed on:
